Review of British Airways flight London → Dallas/Fort Worth in Premium Eco

Hello and welcome to this report between London Heathrow and Dallas Fort Worth Airport, part of my trip between Berlin and San Diego CA. 

Flight information

Aircraft : Airbus A380-800
Registration : G-XLEG
Aircraft age by the time of travel : 9 Years Old
Flight Number : BA193
Flight Time : 9h27
Seat : 66A
Departure Gate : C64

before flying

I Bought the ticket 2 months before departure since the price for Premium Economy for two was not that expensive and another very important reason : I never flew the A380 a before. So I wanted to do it at least once before they take them out of duty.

After making the reservation I discovered that the seat reservation wasn't included, for an overall price which is more than 1800€ for 2. So I decided to book on the BA website a seat for me and my friend, in order to get a window and for us to seat together. And to my great surprise, they want 94€ per seat ! 94 EUROS !! 

From my opinion this is simply scandalous. We're talking about Premium Eco here, not business. To be honest I would have accepted to pay 20/30€ max but 94€ ?! For 2 persons it's almost 200€ on top of the original ticket price. Which makes the overall price the same than Air France in the end. If I knew this before may be I would have booked Air France in fact, since their PE is very good. But yes thay don't have the A380 anymore, so that's how BA got me, and yes I ended up paying for the seats since seating in D, E or F wasn't an option.

But thinking about the usual question in a potential customer survey I would receive : "would you consider flying BA in the future again ?". I would answer "probably not". 

The funny thing is that on the flight back fro the US we took an American Airlines flight booked via BA (codeshare) and here the seat reservation was included ! So one plus point for AA here, otherwise i'd have to pay close to 400 euros to reserve seats.. 

Check in

The online check in opened 24h before departure. Nor problem for issuing the boarding passes. 

Nothing special to be reported here since we checked our luggages in at Berlin Airport where we were departing from. No priority line for Premium eco passengers, and we sat in eco for the flight between BER and LHR. 

Heathrow Airport

We arrived at T5 from our previous flight from Berlin. We deboarded by bus, and it took us already 20 minutes to reach the main terminal since aircrafts were blocking the road towards the terminal.

We reached e-gates for the connecting flights and before they advice that all passengers have to respect the security requirements regarding liquids. So we have to go through security again ? Arriving at the e-gates for sure our boarding passes printed in Berlin did not work, so they had to print out new ones. No idea why. The BA employees were very friendly and helpful though. And there are a lot of people with those purple vests which are here to help. 

After passing the gates we reached some waiting area before the security screening. 

There is a lot of people and it's not really fast… 

We have one hour before the boarding of the flight and i'd like to go to the lounge to have a quick snack.. So getting a bit impatient here.

Some of the control lanes are closed because apparently they are building new scanners (hopefully the ones without liquid restrictions and where you don't have to take anything out of your bag). 

As always there is one single person blocking the whole line because he cannot open his luggage and the laptop is inside.. And do you think that he would step aside to let others go ? for sure not. Anyways, after a good 20 minutes we are through the security screening and make our way towards the priority pass lounge (not included with the BA Premium Eco Booking though). 

The indications are pretty bad so it's a bit hard to find it. And has you can see the airport is pretty full on this morning. 

We finally reach the lounge but we just stay like 15 minutes to have a quick snack. The food offer is not too bad but since the airport is packed this morning, it's pretty hard to find a free seat. It's also not too big. And to my opinion it justs looks like an old corridor which they turned into a lounge. It doesn't even have private toilets. 

But the view is very nice !

So after a quick snack we make our way to the pier C where our flight will be departing. The first step is to reach the middle of the terminal and go to the lower level to reach the shuttle train between the terminals. I read on previous FRs that the train doesn't ride too often and that it's pretty often packed, so let's see. 

As you can see there are some people already waiting. Beware because it takes ages to deboard but you just have seconds to board that's all. It's an automatic pilotless train, so you better not be between the doors when they are closing !  The ride is pretty fast and takes may be two minutes to reach the pier C.

After reaching the building you take escalators to go again to the higher level. 

Contrary to the other pier, there isn't a lot of space here. It's pretty weird since it's the gates where the A380 are, so a lot of people should be expected.. Overall this airport feels very small everywhere. There is not a lot of space to walk. But there are big windows making it very bright. Plus it's always good for some plane spotting .. ! 

(This one won't be ours)

But this one !

And a beautiful A350-1000 parked next to the A380s. 

Reaching our gate which is C64 today. Pretty good organized with a big waiting queue as you can see. 

What I find a pitty though, is that the line is blocked since the boarding hasn't started yet. So a lot of persons are just queuing up on the corridor making it very full and hard for other persons to pass by.

Boarding

The agents finally start to check the boarding passes for the groups and let the families go through. It started 15 minutes ago and they are still letting only the families go through the gate. They seem to be waiting just after the gate though.

They do start eventually with the general boarding but only the lower deck. They are indeed engineers working on the upper deck.. So we can't board at the moment and have to wait further.. 

The boarding is overall very really messy, the guy controlling the groups thought it was groups 1 to 4, but it was not so they stopped him because it was actually only rows 1 to four, then 1 to 15.. Rows, not groups. In between we are still waiting there. Let's see if they are able to board the whole aircraft or only the half ??‍

Rows 1 to 42 are called, still only the lower deck.. I don't know what the issue is but it's pretty annoying to be honest. When you book premium or business you should board first the aircraft and now it's the other way around. But okay it's an engineering problem.. 

Eventually 35 minutes after the start of the boarding they allow the upper deck to get in. But they still do the groups ! It starts with 1 to 2. Finally, when the whole plane has boarded they allow us to get in. We first have to take stairs to go down to reach the jetbridge. Just after the stairs some hand luggages are getting checked, no really idea why. 

I am pretty amazed by the size of the gate first, three different bridges with directions to the seats. We take the one going up to the upper deck ! I am getting excited !!

I am like a child, the plane is beautiful, the curve is already very impressive when you board on the upper deck !

We are welcome by the crew who point us towards our seats, we are on 66A and 66B. We pass through the business, which seems pretty odd with seats backwards, and I find them pretty tight to be honest. (Photo taken after arrival). 

We arrive in the PE section and the atmosphere is pretty good to be honest. I would have expected the cabin to bit a bit narrower and lower on the upper deck but it's absolutely not the case. It feels like a normal Long haul plane. The configuration in PE is 2-3-2. It is a pretty big cabin though, so don't expect to feel "separated". But there are walls to separate the PE from Business and from the small eco part on the back of the plane. 

Arriving at the seat I am positively surprised I have to say ! There is a blanket, a small pillow, a plastic bag with the amenity kit, and a headset waiting for us at each seat. The headset is noise cancelling, didn't tried them since I have my own, but my friend told me that they worked pretty well. 

The seats are pretty wide, they envelop the back and the head too. I like their shape, they are quite comfortable (let's see after 9:30h of flight). There's an adjustable foot rest in the front seat but no leveling leg rest below the seat. When you recline the seat it's moving a bit forward though. On the side, below the windows there are the lockers (made possible by the curve of the cabin). So a lot of storage if you count also the overhead bins. Unfortunately mine was broken so that it wouldn't stay closed.

Overall this aircraft is really spacious (don't know in eco though but the feeling might be the same) !

I had expected very old seats but i am positively surprised, you just remark their age while looking at the personal TV which is really the big minus here. Too small, way too old, and not really responsive either. So you have to be patient while handling it, but there is a remote control on the right of the seat making it a bit easier to use. The tray table is located between both seats.

No water bottle waiting for us at our seat. Not too bad because it's less trash and now pretty much everyone is travelling with a water bottle.

The back of the seat in front of me is made out of some very old plastic which was at the beginning grey and now has been yellowed by the sun. Not really a big deal but also not really a fancy color.. 

Regarding the view it is a bit obstructed by the massive wing but if I bend a little bit forward then I can see behind it, so not too bad. The premium eco is located directly above the wings. Also pretty interesting how thick the plane walls are, resulting in a smaller felling of the windows. Don't really know why, usually on the long haul aircrafts it's not the case. And a good point to be noticed : I get 2 windows ! 

Two cabin crews are assigned to the premium eco section and ours seems to be very slow to be honest. The one on the right aisle is already done for handing over champagne or orange juice while ours didn't even had started. She has to come back three times to reach our row and unfortunately she comes at our level with only orange juice. No champagne anymore, we asked but answer : after take off. Well great.. She also doesn't hand over menus as her colleague did. Let's see how good the service is gonna be.

The rest of boarding goes on while this very annoying some kind of classical music is being played the whole time. It's really too loud and not comfortable at all.

I might sound a bit negative so far, but beside the fact that I am amazed by the A380, the service isn't too good and the boarding was a bit complicated. The seats are a good surprise though, I expected worse. 

Shortly before 11 the Purser announces that the boarding is completed and the first officer makes the welcome announcement. He says that we are a bit behind schedule due to some paperwork they have to finish before we leave. The flight time to dallas DGW will be 9:20 minutes today and he expects a smooth flight without too much turbulence. 

As you can see it's full house today.

taxi and take off

At 11:00 am the beast starts to move and is pushed back from the gate. The engines are started one after the other, after start checklist and we start to taxi towards the runway.

While taxiing they play safety video and it actually starts by a few human screams and animal screams. Everyone was quite surprised and the cabin crew standing there were a bit amused. I guess it's done on purpose to raise people'a attention. Nothing really special about this safety video to be honest. I would just say that it's done in a very British way and humor. 

A few aircrafts are passing on our side while taxiing, one of them an SQ A380 going back to Singapore. I am quite happy to think that i'm seating in exactly the same aircraft, and not in an A320 looking at an A380 passing by. Finally made it ! 

And side to side 

For some reason he has priority over us and gets to take off ealier. 

Some 320s are given priority too, due to weight turbulence I guess. From up here they seem pretty small !

At 11:15 we are aligned on the south runway and take off towards the east. 

The roll is quite long, a few shifts from left to right and we are airborne.

Even with full take off power the aircraft is still very quiet and doesn't vibrate at all ! Directly after take off we make a right turn towards the east. We go through some turbulences during the climb and we feel them a bit more than what I would have expected. It feels somehow weird on this huge aircraft. Couldn't describe it but you can fell that this aircraft is pretty heavy.

It takes us about 12 minutes to pass 10000ft, pretty slow..  And finally above the first layer of clouds. 

Inflight

We get the first drink service with some snacks shortly after passing 10,000ft, not too high but already 20 minutes after take off. Yes the vertical speed is pretty low !  We go for the champagne we didn't had, which is Prosecco and not champagne.. Not really a big deal, but the truth should be said…

The menu is also handed over to us and as you can see there is the choice between 3 main courses. (The photo is taken a bit later during the flight).

They also offer some cocktails, spirits, wines and co. Didn't try them though. 

While we enjoy our drink I have a look at the wifi. You can purchase different kind of passes. The lowest one being 2.99£ for one hour of text messages or 4,99£ for the whole flight. It's a faire price to my opinion (not like the seat reservation…). I took this one and I got disappointed pretty fast.. It's reaaaaaaaally slow ! Fits somehow pretty well to the A380 actually… It takes really ages to send / receive a message on what's app.

About 1 hour 45 minutes after take off they arrive at our row with the meal trays. My friend took the chicken but I decided to try the fish pie. And here it's a pretty good surprise I have to say ! It's real porcelain plates, metal cutlery, and even a real napkin. There is a bottle of water and a real glass on the tray. So really really good surprise.

I start with the Cesar salad which has nothing from a Cesar besides may be the dressing. The portion is a bit too small but doesn't taste too bad. The main meal is very good ! I am really positively surprised. Didn't expect that, so I think BA is offering a better meal on PE compared to eco. A really good plus point. I remember my last experience on AF a few years ago and it was the same tray than eco passengers.
The bread is tasting again like plane bread, I don't know why but no company is able to make proper bread. It's always very chewy. The cheesecake did also taste very good, so overall a very good tray !

(Sorry for my finger on the pic…)

A few moments after we were done with the meal they came to collect the trays and offered us some coffee or tea. No glass this time but paper cups. 

After the service they dimmed a bit the light in the cabin, which is anyway very bright because we are flying during the day and they don't make us close the window blinds. Which I find good because I like to look through the window !

Air to Air ! 

A few minutes after, the cabin crew assigned to our row came to us with two glasses of sparkling wine on the a tray and said : "would the two of you want some more sparkling wine ?". Well for sure ! That's a very nice attention !! She probably remembered that we didn't had any during boarding so she came back with some extra only for us. Very nice of her !!

I rest a bit and look at the screen after the meal service and well here as I said earlier, it's quite old. They have 113 films some of them are new, some of them bit older. And they have the usual ones you would find on all the planes : Mama Mia being a very good example…
The screen isn't too responsive and you have to be really patient to use it. The remote control also doesn't work very good. And it's lacking a return button !! I also wasn't able to find the outside camera which is placed on the tail of the aircraft, pretty disappointed.. I was looking forward to it but I guess BA do not have them on the A380s..

I decided then to go for a small walk to stretch my legs and visit a little bit the plane. Obviously the access to the business class is closed so I only checked the economy and the galleys. Not too much offered there, you have to ask the crew if you want something. But in each and everyone of the galley there is one member of the crew present and offering something. 

We had a little chat with two of them and they were very nice and funny ! They said they enjoy flying on the A380 because it's pretty big and smooth. However they were not so convinced about Dallas and their lay over there… They would stay only 24 hours and basically bring back to London the plane arriving tomorrow. 

Some nice view from the small window in the back door as we are flying close to Greenland. 

Around 4 hours after take off they pass through the cabin with a vanilla ice cream. Nothing really special but good to keep the stomach busy.

We stand up again for a small walk.

A view of the Premium Eco Part from the back 

And the little eco part at the back of the Upper Deck, as you can see Toilets are located in the middle of it. I don't really like it.. 

We arrive at the galley again and for the second time we see the Pilot walking around the cabin and chatting with the cabin crew. The guy seems to be very nice ! And chats us up also to know if the crew are taking a good care of us. A cabin crew looks at us and says "OMG but if the captain is there, who's flying the plane ?!". 

Taking the stairs to reach the lower deck. 

The lower deck is much colder than the upper one. Everybody has a blanket while on the upper deck not too much people wear it. Also to be mentioned, PE passengers get a better blanket, a bit thicker than the one of the eco.

Time to have a look at the amenity kit it's nothing really special. Lip balm, socks, eye mask, tooth brush with tooth paste and a pen (Nice !). No ear plugs. Nice to have I would say, but I didn't see a lot of passengers using it to be honest. Next point where the companies will make some savings ?

Around one hour thirty minutes before arrival while we reach Missouri they arrive for the second service.
(Photo taken obviously earlier while we were flying over Illinois). 

The snack is a hot small sandwich served with beverages. The same one that Turkish airlines offers, funny. It tastes okay, not the best part of the experience. I guess the economy passengers are getting the same.

40 minutes before landing the captain makes the announcement that we will shortly be landing in Dallas. So last opportunity to use the lavatories, which are pretty dirty at this time of the flight… No assigned toilets to PE passengers, they are shared with the economy. 

One of the cabin crew members makes an announcement that they are collecting some money for charity.  I always have mixed feelings about this. Seems to be a british thing, Easyjet used to do it a few years ago too but they stopped a while ago. Somehow funny that now BA is doing it instead of EZY.. 

Approach and Landing

The descent towards Dallas is pretty smooth, we fly over the city and it seems to be huuuuge ! 

Close to Downtown.

Apparently there are some strong winds on the ground making a very bumpy final approach and pretty hard landing. It's a weird feeling to have this huge beast moving from left to right and up and down.

On final..

We Land at 2:46pm local time, 9:46pm London time.

Taxiing towards the gate, passing one AA aircraft after the other. 

Arrival Airport

We arrive at the gate and the same game like for boarding, they can't attach the jetbridge to the upper deck so we all have to disembark via the main deck. Allowing us to use the front stairs. 

While we wait to disembark, for sure they start again with the veeery annoying music. Thanks got it doesn't take too long to get out.

A lot of windows after getting out of the jetbridge allowing me to take some pictures. 

A Lufthansa A330-300 parked next to us 

And a very unusual American Airlines 787 in this American Airlines hub …

We reach pretty fast the customs area which is packed and huge ! 

There are like 30 counters for the control. But it's pretty well organized to be honest. It's just that there are a lot of people. 

Overall one hour of wait and did the question round with a very very unpleasant agent.. Didn't even looked me once in the eye, asked two questions and that's all. Forget about the "Welcome to the USA" too…

After the customs I didn't know but we had to pick up our luggages ! I thought they would go through until the final destination. But as I have now learned, while stopping over in the US, the luggages need to be picked up, checked by the security and then checked in again. We were pretty lucky here because we were just passing by the carrousels while my friend recognized his luggage ! That's how we became aware that we had to pick it up.. Afterwards no need to do a full check in again, they just need to be handed over again after security on another carousel. 

But after this, you get out of the airport.. You do not reach again the air side. So guess what ? For the third time we had to go through security.. 

And that's it for this report between LHR and DFW ! 
Thanks for reading me :)